Towards
an analysis of the South African media and transformation, 1994 - 1999This
paper appeared in the journal Transformation,no. 38 by
Guy Berger, Jan 1999

There
has been mammoth change in South African media in the first five years of the
country's democracy - in legal context, ownership and staffing, and in race,
even gender and class. There have been changes in audiences and in the quantity
and quality of media. Some of these changes accorded with transformation, some
contributed to transformation, some ran counter to transformation and many counted
directly as transformation. The media landscape after five years is almost unrecognisable
when compared to that existing beforehand. Its transformation may be less than
what was wrought in politics and political institutions; its contribution to
transformation in these and other spheres may be uneven and contradictory. Yet,
transformation there has been.